Hop (2011)

Hop Synopsis

Blending state of the art animation with live action, Hop is a comedy about E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand), the teenage son of the Easter Bunny. On the eve of taking over the family business, E.B. leaves for Hollywood in pursuit of his dream of becoming a drummer. He encounters Fred (James Marsden), an out-of-work slacker with his own lofty goals, who accidentally hits E.B. with his car. Feigning injury, E.B. manipulates Fred into providing him shelter, and Fred finds himself with the worldís worst houseguest.

Is it summertime yet? The US box office continues to languish under the weight of cinematic mediocrity and what appears to be a delayed reaction to the American financial crisis. Our best hope? Summer blockbusters...and soon. Despite there being four new entries this weekend, none could pop last weekend's Hop from its top spot.

This weekend Hop, and its relatively small $63 million budget, proved that you don't have to spend a ton of money to make a computer animated movie. Of course, it also proved the point that you get what you pay for. The cutesy yet rated-PG attempt at capitolizing on an Easter-ish franchise got a mediocre reception, both from critics and audiences.

The movies are all over the place this week as Jake Gyllenhaal takes a never-ending train ride, the Easter Bunny gets his chance on the big screen and another kid haunts another house. Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up

Having seen the first two trailers for HOP I assumed, wrongfully it seems, that this was just another in a long line of CGI talking animal moves in with a human movie. See Garfield or Alvin and the Chipmunks as reference points. The newest HOP trailer, though, washes all of that away.

Letís get this out of the way right now. As far as I know, Hop is not an animated movie. At least itís not supposed to be an animated movie. You wonít see anything that isnít animated in the movieís first teaser trailer